water pressure tankless water heater

[twohappycampers]

We have installed a Precision Temp tankless hot water heater. It works awesome in the shower & bathroom sink, the water gets plenty hot. However, the kitchen faucet doesn't have enough water flow for the heater to work properly. According to the technician at Precision Temp, that's the problem. On his advice, we changed the faucet to a new residential model. This seems to have improved the situation somewhat, although the water doesn't get as hot as in the bathroom, and not hot enough for washing dishes, etc. I am suspecting the 90 degree plastic pipe joiners under the sink and in the crawlspace could be part of the flow restriction problem. Anyone out there had the same problem, and if so what was your remedy? The Precision Temp is 55000 BTU. Thanks!

 

[hoefler]

Take and disconnect the faucet, run the line into a bucket and turn the water on. Do you get enough flow for the water heater to work properly?? If so, the faucet is the issue, if not, start tracing the lines back to the water heater, you may have one kinked or partially blocked at a fitting.

 

[danemayer]

Did the kitchen faucet work ok with the original water heater?

 

[twohappycampers]

Thanks for your reply, We changed the faucet after installing the new tankless water heater. We replaced the original faucet as it didn't have enough flow rate to allow the heater to work properly. This has improved the function of the heater, however not as hot as in the bathroom sink or shower. I now suspect the plastic 90 degree elbows in the water supply lines may be reducing the flow rate as well. I was thinking of replacing them with brass elbows as the brass ones should have a larger inside diameter, causing less restriction to the water flow rate.

 

[twohappycampers]

Thanks so much for your reply, I will try that next. Some things got got to work!

 

[Nabo]

OK - I have a big question. Where did you mount the tankless h2o heater? I'm assuming it's electric - right???

 

[twohappycampers]

The Precision Temp is propane operated, with 12 volts igniter system for the burners. It is installed exactly where the Surburban 12 gal water tank was. The old one slides out, the new one slides in. The air intake and exhaust are both vented through the removable access door on the exterior wall of the trailer. Very simple installation.

 

[priorguy]

Remove the aerator for the faucet first, that will give you max flow at the sink.